New Cooking Channel Show: Get Ready To Trip Out with Alie and Georgia!

We definitely caught people's attention initially by making ridiculous drinks.

What do you get when you take two gorgeous, talented, funny, free spirited and stylish gals and add in a few cocktails? OK...get your minds out the gutter people. The right answer (of course) is that you get Tripping Out with Alie & Georgia where two besties (Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark) go on spectacular adventures and kick up booze filled beverages in ways that you could never imagine!

Premiering on the Cooking Channel Friday June 21st at 7:30pm (PST), Alie and Georgia travel to destinations like Las Vegas, Miami, and San Francisco to take in local libations and activities and then, come back to good ol' Los Angeles to show why they are the hostesses with the mostest by planning fantastic parties for their friends based off of their travels. We know, it sounds like a real "can't miss" so the real question is...why would you want to?

OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): Being that you're both writers, I can totally relate that you got into creating cocktails because deadlines and drinking kind of go hand in hand. How you'd end up getting on Cooking Channel because of it though?

Alie Ward: I was a journalist at LA Weekly and the LA Times and was covering cocktails, events, and nightlife. I was reading and experiencing the craft cocktail scene a lot and at that point, it was just starting to get a little bit out of control. Georgia and I had this fictitious drink that we would joke about that didn't exist called, "The McNuggetini." We'd want to have it after work because our hours were so late and we would want a dinner and drink all in one.

Georgia Hardstark: Yeah so, we made up this McNuggetini and it was totally an inside joke between us that we thought was so funny. We had a friend who made videos for Funny Or Die and he agreed to make a "how to" video for us. So we filmed it in my grandma's kitchen in Los Angeles and the video totally went viral. We didn't expect it at all. After we made a couple of videos, Cooking Channel contacted us and were like, "Can you guys do this for real and not as a joke?" We were like, yes we can! So from there, we just started making videos and cocktails for them!

That is incredible! Now do people always hit you up to try out their cocktail inventions?

Georgia: We actually get sent a lot of booze, which is the most awesome perk of the job. We get to try a lot of weird liqueurs, really awesome homemade bitters and that sort of thing. When we go to bars, we always like to try the weirdest thing on the menu and the most normal thing on the menu to see how that specific bartender plays with weird things and classic cocktails.

Alie: Sometimes when we do go to tastings, restaurants, or new bars we'll get sent a lot of drinks to try. I think people forget that we are two not large women. [Laughs.] It's nice to have a partner to be testing things with you because you can try three drinks while only really consuming one and a half. We really have to put the brakes on some testing but, we do get the opportunity to try a lot of great drinks.

What's the biggest drink failure you've ever created that you literally spit out the second it hit your lips? It has to be the "Ham Daiquiri" because ummm...yuck.

Georgia: [Laughs.] Yeah that is probably the worst cocktail that we've done that has made it to a video, and that was before we started making them for Cooking Channel. Once we started making them for Cooking Channel, we wanted to make them better. We do the testing process before we come to the final cocktail and depending on what cocktail you're making, a lot of them are initial failures.

Alie: I think that some of our early drinks were kind of stunt cocktails. But when it comes to our new show and the recipes that we'll be putting up for Cooking Channel, those are legit good drinks that we do test and take pride in. But we definitely caught people's attention initially by making ridiculous drinks that were sort of absurdly irreverent. Like yeah, blend ham in a daiquiri! It makes absolutely no sense but I think it sort of got people to notice that we are fearless.

It almost made sense because of the honey glazed ham aspect but as soon as you guys sucked it through the straw, I was ready to yack.

Alie: Now if we were going to make that drink again, we could probably make it good. Like if we did something with a ham infusion or a liquid smoke plus some pineapple rum, I think we could actually retool it and make the flavors present. But the texture of that one? [Laughs.]

Georgia: Yeah, I think we need to do a Ham Daiquiri redemption. With all of our cocktails what we try to do is challenge flavors. The ones that make it on the show are interesting but they are a little more balanced than that one! And they are much less chewy than the Ham Daiquiri. [Laughs.]

Ughh chewy. Haha, barfing. You're also both very stylish. Have you thought of maybe branching off into a clothing line?

Alie: Yes! We would love that! Vintage inspired clothing is way more flattering because it is tight on the waist and roomy in the ass area. My dream also is to have an Alie and Georgia vintage inspired cocktail set line, so we're claiming dibs on that!

Georgia: We're both really into the vintage clothing because it's so flattering and timeless. I actually started my vintage clothing shopping when I was living in Orange County and when we were both in high school, we started dressing in vintage. It's such a great style and I think a lot of people are afraid to go there but, I think it'd be really fun to have a vintage clothing line and jewelry...and purses!